Morale in a Campaign Game

[rebel15nc]

I am playing the Atlanta campaign. My Yankee enemy won a minor victory at Cassville.
He says that the general morale ratings of his individual regiments seems to have gone up.
In general he is referring to his Army of the Ohio units which are mostly D's and E's. He claims they are now mostly D's as a result of the win. Does the game actually increase or decrease regimental morale based on the previous battle's results?

 

[Gary McClellan]

As an ordinary rule, no. The campaigns are built with a "master" oob, and in those, all the attributes of the units (such as morale) are set at the beginning of the campaign. The only thing that changes is the strength of the unit (as it takes losses).

 

[Tom Bridges]

Hey rebel15nc...looks like you're in North Carolina, me too! Where do you call home? I'm in Charlotte.

 

[rebel15nc]

Hi Tom, Yep. I have been a Eastern NC Tarheel all my life. I live in Rocky Mount. I have a good friend that lives in Charlotte that always kicks my butt in these John Tiller games without fail.

 

[rebel15nc]

Well the NO answer re morale going up or down for units based on results of an individual battle within a Campaign triggered another question: If you are playing a series of linked historical battles like I am in the Atlanta Campaign, is there any real advantage or disadvantage to actually winning or losing a particular battle? For instance, I am playing the South and we are currently playing the Kennesaw Mountain Battle. The game begins with the situation being a Yankee Minor Defeat. My Yankee opposite number does not wish to play this battle and has offerred me a Draw. I told him he could have a Minor Loss and we would move on to the next battle. However, since this Campaign is all Historical Battles, I now see no advantage or disadvantage to me giving him the Draw that he has not earned. Am I right? If we were playing a campaign where winning or losing a battle might produce a differnent next battle, then I can see where I absolutely might not want to give him a draw, etc. Am I missing something important here?

 

[AlAmos]

Yes, the designer may have variations on the historical battle that by winning the current battle you may earn a variant that is in your favor. Perhaps by winning you get to fight the next battle in clear weather instead of poor (historical) weather, etc.

The designer could have different OOB files linked together to reflect the effect of a previous battle in a campaign. So in battle A the OOB could have all the units as D rated troops, and then in battle B a different OOB file (perhaps only different due to a change in morale grades) could have all the units rated to C level to reflect that "they have now seen the elephant", or maybe the previous battle was won, etc.

 

[Gary McClellan]

Ok, the level of victory in a battle absolutely makes a difference in the next battle. In short, the way the campaign system works is that when you make your choice, and your opponent makes his choice, that determines your next battle. The result of that battle then decides which "branch" of the campaign you go to next. For instance, the Campaign designer may say "If the Union wins, they press on towards Atlanta, but if the Rebs win, they then get to counterattack the Union supply lines", and the campaign options that are given are fitting to that situation. You can actually get extremely elaborate in setting up the campaign tree. (Of course, that gives the campaign designer an enormous amount of work).

As Al says, it's possible to use linked and mapped oob files and the like to shift morale, but I checked in Atlanta and saw no sign that Rich W did that in that game (which is why I didn't choose to give the extra complicated answer).

 

[AlAmos]

Complicated is the only way to answer. ;-)

Did you enjoy our heatwave Gary? I sure did.... NOT! hehehe...